Pride necessarily sprouts and grows; a pride that can only come from relentless kneading of unwilling flesh, painful months of grinding and burning away all that is heavy, all that is strength-sapping and useless to the body as a projectile. --John L. Parker, Jr., runner/author

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt

7 Miles on TM; tired after mentally exhausting day and only about 45 minutes to run, so I planned an easy progressive, starting at 7:30 pace and working down at 15 second increments. Problem was the severe side stitch that developed near end of Mile 4 (6:45 pace). I don't know if it was the lack of energy, stress, insufficient warm-up, or some combination thereof, but I actually had to stop completely. After a couple of minutes, I managed the final 3 Mile at 8:30 pace.

13.25 Miles in 1:41 on TM; worked my way into what became one of my better workouts in a while.

Started routine enough with 4 Miles at 8:00/mile, 4 Miles at 7:47/mile, and 2 Miles at 7:30/mile; then incorporated 4X45sec (approx. 200m) repeats at 5:56 pace (1.0 incline) into Mile 11, 4X45sec repeats at 5:52 pace (3.0 incline) into Mile 12, and 4X45sec repeats at 5:49 pace (6.0 incline) into Mile 13.

17 Miles on the beautiful, snow-covered streets of Little Rock. Ran 1.5 Miles to LR Marathon Mile Marker 16, then ran the course in reverse to Mile Marker 9, and back. This section of the race, which I will be running for the fifth time on March 2, passes the State Capitol, Little Rock Central High School, and the Governor's Mansion. I actually saw the Governor's limo and his state police escort twice near Central High. I'm thinking he was probably out with the First Lady taking in the snowy scenery.

10 Miles in 69:39 (6:58) on a nice day in and around Malvern. Ran from Magnet Cove Elementary School, where my Mom is the librarian and hosting a book fair, to parents' home on the outskirts of Hot Spring County along Hwy. 171.

10.5 Total Miles including half-mile cool-down up my parents' driveway.

Just under 16.5 Miles with Dave in 1:45 (7:50 pace); beautiful afternoon for a run, during which we picked up the LR Marathon course at Mile Marker 13, following it roughly through Mile Marker 25, then cutting back through downtown Little Rock to our office.

16.5 Total Miles including 2 Miles of commuting and a one-mile walk with Charley during lunch.